Should immunization be made mandatory?

Should immunization be made mandatory?

Between December 2014 and March 20, almost 150 people from seven states in the U.S. were reported to have measles. These people are considered as a part of large measles outbreak linked to an amusement park in California. The outbreak probably started from a visitor who got infected with measles during his trip. Thereafter, he visited amusement park which led to Disneyland measles outbreak. An incident like this forces global health authorities to seriously consider about immunization. However, making it compulsory is a big debate. Let us discuss on topic, Should immunization be made mandatory?

Yes

• Some diseases like measles are extremely contagious. It can infect 90% of the people present around the patient who aren’t immunized. Immunization can prevent spread of such diseases.

• If people can remember, polio was one of the most concerning issue in India and the world. However, with proper network set for immunization, the problem is almost eradicated from India.

• The risk of immunization are low, and in case of many vaccines it is just limited to common symptoms like swollen glands, fever and temporary joint pain. So, when there is low risk why cannot be immunization be made compulsory.

• Whenever there is an outbreak and people who are not immunized are quarantined at least for 21 days, the costs of which are again high. Also, quarantined people lose both time and money. Such problems can be removed by compulsory immunization.

• Refusal to get immunize can prove to be an expensive affair for the government who has to spend both money and human resources to control the outbreak.

No

• It is the personal decision of an individual whether he wants to get vaccinated or not. Government cannot take health decisions for people.

• There are numerous side effects of vaccination. The risks might be low but still the fact that risks exists cannot be ignored.

• Mandatory immunization expenses will fallback again on the government which will increase total expenditure of the country.

• The step would not focus on disease eradication. Mandatory immunization is all about Big Pharma and the huge amount of funds given to them to come up with an endless supply of inoculations.

• The big problem like Autism is stated to be one of the main side-effects caused by immunization.

Conclusion

Here, it is important to understand that vaccinations are for the good of people and avoiding them would increase chances of a deadly outbreak in the future. The only objective of immunization is keeping people safe and well. However, again in democratic countries it is not possible to force people to get vaccinated without their consent. Instead of making vaccinations compulsory, it would be better to make people aware of the many benefits of immunization which will help them to take informed decisions.

The government needs to evaluate every vaccine on its real merit and requirements and then introduce it in its chart. There are many vaccines available in the market which doctors prescribe to make money for the big pharma companies and earn a benefit out of them. This commercialization of research and medication has to be stopped.

The important vaccines must be made compulsory but at the same time the government must take an objective view on what is really important and necessary.